http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800734.htm
 
PRAYER-KASPER Feb-7-2008 (750 words) xxxi

Vatican cardinal defends reformulation of Tridentine prayer for Jews

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican cardinal defended Pope Benedict XVI's reformulation of a prayer for the conversion of Jews and said he hopes it will not become an obstacle in Catholic-Jєωιѕн dialogue.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, said the Catholic Church cannot hide its belief that Jesus Christ is the savior of all peoples, including the Jews.

But that does not mean the church is launching a missionary effort among the Jєωιѕн people, he told Vatican Radio Feb. 7.

Cardinal Kasper was responding to Jєωιѕн criticism of the pope's new Good Friday prayer for Jews in the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine rite, which can be used with greater freedom under new norms issued last year.

The pope removed language that spoke of the "blindness" of the Jews, which Cardinal Kasper said was "a little offensive."

"The Holy Father wanted to remove this point, but he also wanted to underline the specific difference that exists between us and Judaism," the cardinal said.

That difference is that for Christians Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, he said.

"This difference cannot be hidden. The Holy Father wanted to say, yes, Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, even the Jews. He says this in his prayer," Cardinal Kasper said.

"But if this prayer, today, speaks of the conversion of the Jews, that doesn't mean we intend to carry out a mission," he said.

Rather, he said, the pope's revised prayer expresses an "eschatological hope" by citing St. Paul's expectation that when "the full number of the Gentiles" enters the church, then all Israel will be saved.

In effect, Cardinal Kasper said, the pope has removed the "language of contempt" and replaced it with words that express honest differences.

True dialogue between faiths must always accept the identity of the other, he said.

"We respect the identity of the Jews; they should respect ours, which we cannot hide," he said.

"I don't see this as an obstacle, but rather as a challenge for true theological dialogue," he said.

The newly formulated prayer, published only in Latin with no official translations, begins: "Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."

It continues: "Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, as the full number of the Gentiles comes into your church, all Israel may be saved."

The older version of the prayer, in addition to referring to the "blindness" of the Jews, appealed that they "be delivered from their darkness" and that God "may take the veil from their hearts." A reference to "perfidious Jews" was dropped in 1959.

After the revised text was published Feb. 5, some Jєωιѕн leaders quickly expressed disappointment.

"While we appreciate that the text avoids any derogatory language toward Jews, it's regretful that the prayer explicitly calls for Jews to accept Christianity," Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jєωιѕн Committee's international director of interreligious affairs, said in a statement.

"This differs greatly from the text in the current universal liturgy that prays for the salvation of the Jews in general terms," Rabbi Rosen said.

Abraham H. Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the pope had made only "cosmetic revisions" to the prayer. The text remains deeply troubling because it calls on Jews to acknowledge Christ as savior, he said.

Vatican officials have emphasized that the newly formulated Good Friday prayer applies only to the 1962 missal and that its use would be exceptional, since the old rite is not as widely available during the three days leading up to Easter.

The 1970 Roman Missal, revised after the Second Vatican Council, is the one generally used by Catholic churches around the world. It also contains a Good Friday prayer for Jews, which reads: "Let us pray for the Jєωιѕн people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

END

Quote from: gladius_veritatis

He has revealed the true colors of the N.O. AGAIN...

Is anyone listening?

When soldiers go into battle and are exposed to the sound of gunfire 24 hours a day, they get shellshock and wont really have any reaction to the sound of gunfire.

So no, were not listening. We have heard so many of Pravoslavni's  (more than likely false) "alerts" that we dont really pay attention to them anymore.

I try to allways give a link to REPUTABLE news sources. If you doubt the accuracy of the things that I post, please check them out for yourself. Many of the news agencies that I get my information from are run by the NO church. I'm not making anything up here.

Boy, you'll carry that worn out fight anywhere, won't you? I suppose if I make a topic on the making of bread, you'd find a way to hook it up with that too.

There are statements a person makes that are an expression of a conviction that the person has no intention of debating, and which it is both futile and superfluous to "contradict/pick apart". Some statements or answers are meant simply to be statements or answers. In this case the point being "So there are men in the church who are doing bad things... your point being?"

Now I believe that the pope, His Holiness Pope Benedict in Rome (by due title), is such (pope that is... God alone knows his holiness). While I believe he is such, I also believe obedience to mean to follow a superior in that which is lawful. I will never deny the superior their authority simply because the superior errs in this or that.

Now those are all my viewpoints or standings on those issues. You can pick at them and attack them and contradict them in every thread in every forum, but you're wasting your breath, and being rude to me besides. (Which explains the way this post sounds.)

Just imagine if, every time a sedevacantist said the Chair of Peter was vacant, everyone who believed otherwise felt the need to "answer it" or argue the point with a whole page, "refuting" every line they typed. It would get pretty tiresome on both sides, I would think. But besides that, it would be rude to the person every single post to fight with them for a position they hold, which nobody is probably going to ever talk them out of.

You can argue my beliefs until kingdom come. But you will never sway me. Knowledge of the truth has set my opinion of the matter in stone. Likewise, I'm fairly certain that practically anybody who walks into a traditional Catholic forum, has probably already more or less made up their minds on the issue as well. With few exceptions, most people have already bought one version of the thing or the other, and is as willing as you are to cling to it to the death.

My observation in this thread is to answer another obvious attempt to say "SEE?! Those sinful romans! Everybody become a sede and flee for your lives!" ... to which I responded in essence, "The house may be on fire, but it is still my house. It's not good that it's on fire, but it remains nevertheless mine... charred, disfigured, burnt to the ground, it is still my house."

To which you replied in essence, "Dulcamara... you opinion or stance in this matter is B.S. ... You're a hypocrite, and you really need to wake up and realize that once the house catches fire, it's not worth calling the firemen." Which had nothing to do either with the intended persuasion of the post (since you already are sede), nor really with my response (my declaration that I'm not at all persuaded).

Or in fewer words, "Polly want a cracker?" (Eg, the repetition is sickening.)

I live in one not made with human hands.  :wink: This house may catch fire, but it will never burn to such an extent that it cannot be rebuilt.